Controversial Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., always looked destined to lose re-election. She won her 2022 election by 554 votes, the closest margin of any House race that year. This year, she’s running in a new district far from her residence.
Then, the new district’s retirement congressman, Ken Buck, dealt a seemingly fatal blow to Boebert. He resigned abruptly in the middle of his term.
Boebert was likely planning to run in a district without an incumbent, but suddenly she was facing the possibility of running against the interim congressman appointed to replace Buck.
Then, a panel of Colorado Republicans announced Buck’s replacement Thursday night… and they gave Boebert a big boost.
The panel chose former Mayor Greg Lopez, who isn’t seeking a full term and who has not filed to run against Boebert.
Lopez will now run as the Republican candidate in the June 25 special election for the remainder of Buck’s term. Given the district’s R+13 rating, Lopez looks likely to win the election and serve in Congress until January 2025.
On the same day as the special election, the GOP will hold its primary to choose its nominee for the House’s next term.
Of the nine competitors who jostled for the special election nomination, seven also are running in the primary race against Boebert.
A candidate running in two different elections for the same seat would have garnered more attention, media coverage, and fundraising opportunities. They would have boosted their odds in the primary campaign against the well-known, well-funded Boebert.
That tension was palpable throughout the six-hour meeting with six votes on Thursday, which winnowed the field in the special election for Buck’s seat to two options, Lopez and former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, one of Boebert’s stiffest primary competitors.
Throughout the evening, there were accusations Buck had intended to kneecap Boebert’s campaign by stepping down early and giving one of her opponents a potential leg up. Boebert pushed the claim, saying in a previous statement, “The establishment concocted a swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election.”
Buck denied that was his intention. He left Congress on March 22, pointing to the “bickering and nonsense” he said now pervades the U.S. Capitol.
Boebert sent a letter to delegates prior to the meeting encouraging them to choose a placeholder, so as not to “influence the regular primary election in a way that would taint the entire process and give this candidate an unfair leg up.”
That riled her primary opponents, including former state Sen. Ted Harvey.
On stage, Harvey lashed back at those who voted for Lopez after landing the third most votes.
“They didn’t do it to support the candidate Greg Lopez, they did it to support their own candidates who weren’t here tonight. That’s not just putting us at risk, but it’s putting our nation at risk,” Harvey said.
Harvey then asked his supporters to throw their weight behind Sonnenberg, one of Harvey’s primary opponents. Sonnenberg barely lost to Lopez in the final vote and seemed to shrug off the loss.
“This is not a game for the weak, I understand completely, they made a decision,” he said, gesturing toward the mingling crowd.
Lopez is a former mayor of Parker, Colorado, who ran two unsuccessful bids for governor and said he will “do the best job that I can and represent this state to the best of my ability.”
The committee convened at the fairgrounds in Hugo, Colorado. It’s a small town of some 800 people, but legend and photos hold that then-President Theodore Roosevelt stopped there to share a meal with cowboys at the turn of the 20th century.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.